Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 20 May 2016
Obama visits Vietnam; World Humanitarian Summit & refugees; France's state of emergency; Death penalty in Asia; Tajikistan rights abuses, 'Dirty Harry' approach in Philippines; Stoking fear in Indonesia; Will Kenya really close Dadaab?; and European Union Day Against Impunity.
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Will Barack Obama press Vietnam to end its crackdown on peaceful activists and move towards free and fair elections during his first visit (May 23-25) of the country as President of the United States?
People with disabilities face added risks of abandonment, neglect, and do not enjoy equal access to food, health care, and other assistance during conflict, displacement, and reconstruction. Countries need to act and change this during the World Humanitarian Summit, that begins on Monday in Istanbul.
Turkey, the host country of the World Humanitarian Summit, should immediately reopen its border to asylum seekers from Syria, says HRW.
The state of emergency in France has been extended once again. Big question: when will it ever end?
Now is an opportune time for officials in Australia to try and reverse the death penalty trend in the region, before it becomes unstoppable.
The authorities in Tajikistan should immediately release Abubakr Azizkhodzhaev, a well-known businessman and government critic who has been detained since February 2016, on politically motivated charges and has been ill-treated in custody.
Providing financial incentives for police to kill criminal suspects is merely a repugnant attempt to legitimize secretive death squads in The Philippines.
The military elite in Indonesia are openly stoking public anxiety about communism, gays and other 'foreign influences', a drive critics say is aimed at seizing a greater role in civilian affairs of the world's third-largest democracy.
Also read this Jakarta Post op-ed by HRW's Indonesia-researcher Andreas Harsono, on the governments' stubbornly problematic approach to dealing with dissent in the restive territory of Papua.